Is Secretary of MCIT, Govt. of INDIA favouring C 1 for eProcurement in INDIA?

Govt. of INDIA promoting stolen IPR ? GoAP accepting stolen IPR of C1 for eProcurement ?

Add’l Secretary of eGovernance at MIT/DIT along with CEO of NISG are favouring C 1 for eProcurement in GoAP and other States in INDIA. Both of them are curbing competation in INDIA.

GoAP did not even follow the IT Act 2000 for TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITY.

Please read the background information on C 1 Owner

C 1 India people’s background information.

EXPRESS UPDATE

remember this? the bmw case

Hit and Miss

Six years after five people died in a road accident, prime accused Sanjeev Nanda resurfaces on Delhi’s Page Three circuit. And the case drags on

KAVITA CHOWDHURY

NEW DELHI: ALMOST six years after a speeding BMW killed five people, including three police constables, and maimed one on a freezing January night at Lodhi Road in the capital, the identity of the driver of the vehicle continues to be a mystery. The name first mentioned in this connection was that of Sanjeev Nanda, former Naval chief Admiral S M Nanda’s grandson, who was allegedly travelling in the car with two of his friends; all of them were reportedly inebriated. But in court, eyewitnesses claimed that the killer vehicle was not a car at all, but a truck! ”There is no evidence whatsoever that Sanjeev was driving the vehicle,” says Ramesh Gupta, Nanda’s lawyer. ”The only evidence available are some broken bits of the BMW numberplate.” With the prosecution case’s weak, the Delhi High Court had no hesitation in granting bail to Nanda in October 1999 after keeping him in custody for 10 months. While on bail, Nanda filed an application to go abroad for higher studies. A personal bond of Rs 5 crore was set up in February 2002, and Nanda was on his way to the US for an MBA course. He has resurfaced recently in the capital circuit as the managing director of a leading city hotel. In legal circles, the BMW case is cited as a classic instance of ”witnesses turning hostile”. The sole survivor of the accident, one Manoj, startled the entire country by stating during the trial that it might have been a truck that ran them over, not a BMW. Star ”eye-witness” Sunil Kulkarni, also turned hostile within eight months of the accident. TO think that the chargesheet, when filed in 1999, looked pretty watertight. While Nanda and his friend Manik Kapoor were charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 of the IPC), and causing grievous injury, the third friend Siddhartha Gupta, his father Rajeev Gupta and domestic help Bhola and Shyam Singh were accused of tampering with evidence. (Siddhartha was later discharged.) The chargesheet said that after running over six people, Nanda stopped the car 50 metres away, stepped out and looked around for a while. Though the injured were crying out for help, he reportedly ignored them and drove away. Two persons were allegedly entangled in the rear portion of the car. ”Instead of helping them, he sped away in the vehicle, resulting in the death of the two persons at the spot,” the chargesheet said. Nanda then allegedly drove to 50, Golf Links, his friend Siddhartha’s house, and parked the car in the driveway. Siddhartha’s father Rajeev and the two domestics helped hide the evidence, the chargesheet said. Five years after the incident, the sessions court recorded Nanda’s statement. While defense lawyers deny any charge of a delayed trial, records show that in 2001, Nanda himself had sought closing of the evidence of the prosecution witnesses on the grounds of slow trial.

Deposing before the court of ASJ S L Bayana in January this year, Nanda denied any connection with the incident, but accepted that he had had beer on that night. The BMW, however, was not his, nor was he driving it, he said. Though the statement of the other accused is currently being recorded, in public opinion the BMW accident is yet another case that has run out of steam in convicting the accused.

CASE FILE

Flashback
• ON THE NIGHT of January 9, 1999, five people died and one was injured when a vehicle ran them over on Lodhi Road, New Delhi
• DURING TRIALl, key witnesses turned hostile; the killer vehicle became ”maybe a truck”
• THE COURT IS currently recording statements of the
accused

ARCHIVE

Sunday, November 07, 2004

http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=58436

______________________________

GoAP is MISLEADING the ENTIRE Country on eProcurement //

GoAP eProcurement Case Background

1. October 2000
Information Technology Act 2000 was passed. Use of 128 Bit SSL & Digital
Certificate made mandatory for ecommerce activities. As per IT ACT 2000 for
any electronic document to be legally valid, it should be digitally signed by
Digital Certificate issued by any Liscensed Certifyign Agency (CA) approve by
Controller of Certifying Agency (CCA).

2. September 2001
Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) Core implementation committee was
formed to implement eProcurement and PWC (Price water house coopers was 3. Feb 2002
CCA granted license to Safescrypt on 5th February, 2002, India’s first CA.
SAFESCRYPT Ltd, a Satyam Infoway company affiliated with VeriSign Inc,
issued the country’s first digital signature certificate to the Minister for
Communications and IT & Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Pramod Mahajan, at an\n
official ceremony here on Wednesday.
SafeScrypt is the first Indian company to get a certifying authority licence for
digital signature from the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA). The
company received this licence earlier this week.

3. Feb 2002
CCA granted license to Safescrypt on 5th February, 2002, India’s first CA.
SAFESCRYPT Ltd, a Satyam Infoway company affiliated with VeriSign Inc,
issued the country’s first digital signature certificate to the Minister for
Communications and IT & Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Pramod Mahajan, at an
official ceremony here on Wednesday.
SafeScrypt is the first Indian company to get a certifying authority licence for
digital signature from the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA). The
company received this licence earlier this week.

4. In Feb 2002,
Department of Public Relation, Madhya Pradesh floated a tender for eTendering,
eProcurement which categorically specified that IT ACT 2000 needs to be
complied and Digital Certificate/SSL/PKI should be used to ensure secrecy of
price bid. No MNC consultant appointed to draft tender document. 5 Companies
participate in the same including Applitech Tendercity.com I Pvt. Ltd (Tendercity),
NexTenders, ITI/Antares, CNet, etc.

5. May 2002
Sometime in May 2002, GoAP floated a Tender for eProcurement software more
specifically eTendering and Reverse Auction engine by Govt. of AP. No mention
of PKI/SSL/Digital Certificate – what was Rs. 35 Lakh paid to then to PWC?

6. Mid 2002
Out of many bidders who had submitted the tender a consortium comprising of
C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Microsoft & Antares System Ltd & Compaq had submitted the

bid. Other bidders included companies like Wipro and consortium of Boradvision
and TCS. Consortium head by C1 India Pvt. Ltd (C1) won the tender. GoAP
approves rate of Rs.4500/Tender (GoAP Pays) & 0.24% of the Tender Value
(winning bidder pays to C1 India Directly)7. In June 2002,
GoAP enters into a secret agreement with C1 India to do a pilot project and not
the consortium which had won the contract? WHY?

8. On 29 th Jan 2003,
www.eprocurement.gov.in launched without compliance to IT ACT 2000, Digital
Certificate, PKI. GoAP gives lame excuse that since Digital Certificates are not
available, hence the same was not integrated in spite of the fact that first Digital
Certificate was issued to Shri. Promod Mahajan as early as Feb 2002.
What started as a Pilot Project for nine months, gets extended for another 9
month unilaterally in spite of the fact that system did not comply to IT ACT
2000.

9. Jan 2003
C1 India gets a 128 bit SSL Certificate from Verisign for
www.eprocurement.gov.in domain? WHY?
1.) .gov.in domain belongs to only government organizations, how come the same was issued to a private company.
2.) 128 Bit SSL was procured from a US Company, whereas IT Act mandates that it should be procured only from liscensed CA. Why was the same not procured from TCS, Safescrypt.
3.) TCS, Safescrypt would have never issued a 128 Bit SSL certificate to C1 India Pvt. Ltd, as .gov.in domain belongs to only Govt. departments. A US company issued the same without any verification, because they were interested in dollars.

10. March 2003
PWD, Chhattisgarh floats a tender for eTendering with Department of Public
Relations, Madhya Pradesh specifications.
Tendercity, C1 India, Wipro, Antares/ITI, Nex Tener & other 3 companies
participated in the tender. Tender gets awarded to NexTender, a mumbai based
company in spite of Tendercity Being the lowest Bidder.

11. April 2003
C1 quotes to PWD, Chhattisgarh Rs. 1000/Tender as fix service charge
irrespective of Tender Value & No fee to be paid by PWD, Chhattisgarh?
Tendercity shares the same information with GoAP. GoAP calls for a steering
committee and yet no action is taken to revise fee being paid to C1 India i.e.
Rs. 4500/Tender (GoAP pays) & 0.24% of Tender Value (winning bidder pays)

12. July 2003
The first lawsuit under Indian cyber law, Antares Systems Ltd, the Bangalore-
based IT firm, has filed a case against an e-governance project in the Delhi High
Court for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and unfair
competition. The case has been filed against C1 India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of
Nasdaq-listed CommerceOne. The Government of Andhra Pradesh and Principal
Secretary, Department of IT and Communications, AP have been arraigned as
parties.
Antares has urged the Delhi HC that C1 India and the AP Government be
restrained from infringing its copyright in its e-tendering software product
Tenderwizard and from relying upon, in any manner whatsoever, the features of
Tenderwizard, said the company’s Senior Vice-President, Mr R. Kamath.

13. July 2003
India’s First Digitally Signed eTender was enabled by Tendercity for  Poorva Kshetra Vidyut Vitran Company Ltd, Madhya Pradesh ElectrictiyBoard, MP (MPPKVVCL, MPSEB,MP). 10 Digital Certificates (TCS) were issued to contractors across India.

14. December, 2003
Northern Railway floats a Tender for eTendering. C1 India, Wipro/NexTender,
Antares, HCL, Tendercity Participated in the tender. Tender awarded to
HCL/Boradvision Consortium. Rate approved Less than Rs.1500/Tender. GoAP
takes no action and does not revise the service fee it pays to C1 India.

15. Feb 2004
Tendercity writes letter to IT Secretary, GoAP, and Principle Secretary GoAP and bring to their notice that PKI compliance is not there on eprocurement.gov.in and that the eTendering services available at a very competitive rates in open market. No Action taken by the GoAP Officers.

16. Mid 2004
On PWC recommendations, JV option was dropped (JV between eTendering
service provider and Government of AP) and eProcurement services was
continued to be used in ASP model
Why did PWD suggested not to go ahead with JV option? probably because in
case of JV Government of AP would have made a lot of money? Total fee
reimbursed by GoAP & Various Bidder to C1 India in last 3 years is in tune of
Crores of Rupees. If GoAP had procured the software, it would have costed
Rs. 0, because that what C1/PWC quoted to NIC, in December 2004 for
eTendering Software.

17. July 2004
GoAP steering committee meets in October, 2004. Price bid revised to as follows w.e.f. 1 st April 2004 as follows
- GoAP pays nothing – i.e. Rs. 4,500/Tender waived off
- For Tender<50 Cr – each participating bidder pays 0.04% of Tender value or\n18. December 2004
PWC Partners with C1 India for NIC tender for eTendering.
Having played a instrumental role in causing great exchequer loss of GoAP, by
recommending ASP Mode, C1 India reward PWC with partnership for NIC Tender. C1 ditched PWC (presumably) by quoting Rs.0 as software price to
NIC.

18. December 2004
PWC Partners with C1 India for NIC tender for eTendering.
Having played a instrumental role in causing great exchequer loss of GoAP, by
recommending ASP Mode, C1 India reward PWC with partnership for NIC
Tender. C1 ditched PWC (presumably) by quoting Rs.0 as software price to
NIC.

19. 1st April 2005
Digital certificates made mandatory from April 2005. Digital certificate are used
only of Authentication purpose at time of Login. Only price bids are digitally
signed and leaving room for service provider to tamper with technical bids,
document uploaded, etc.

20. Mid 2005
Tendercity alleges of eProcurement scam in one of the reply it filed in Delhi
High Court. The same document is shared with various AP departments, but no
action is taken.

21. 24 thNovember 2005,
Tendercity demonstrate to IT Secretary Shri Narsing Roa, the loopholes and
security defects in www.eprocuremnet.gov.in in person in his chamber. IT
Secretary assures that proper action will be taken against the culprits.
Tendercity gets an invitation from HUDA for demonstration of security loopholes
in the system but the same is postponed by CE after a brief 5 minute meeting.22. 3rdDecember, 2005\n
Tendercity demonstrates to Principle Secretary & MD APTS the security
loopholes in www.eprocuremnet.gov.in and ideal security features that should be
enabled. Principle Secretary IT&C promise to take the\n appropriate action.

22. 3rdDecember, 2005
Tendercity demonstrates to Principle Secretary & MD APTS the security
loopholes in www.eprocuremnet.gov.in and ideal security features that should be
enabled. Principle Secretary IT&C promise to take the appropriate action.

23. 5th December, 2005
GoAP accepts vide their email dated 5 th December, 2005 that
1.) www.eprocurement.gov.in is property of GoAP
2.) GoAP sees no harm if a 128 Bit SSL Certificate has be procured from USA
instead from a licensed CA as per CCA norms and that too by C1 India. In
layman terms it means a private company owns www.eprocurement.gov.in
3.) GoAP accepts that till December 2005, price bid submitted by 10,000 of
contractors 9800 eTender enabled so far reached the server in readable fashion
without any encryption, but that OK. It’s public money and it can go down the
drain.
4.) GoAP accepts that only C1 India can access the Price bid of contractors, as
they are the system administrator and super Admin of the website. Since no
government office has access to database, and generally they are corrupt the
system is secure. As per GoAP, private company which has been given the
custody of Rs.32,000 Cr. worth of eTender price bid security are trustworthy and
walking gods.
5.) GoAP states that C1 India does not access the readable price bid of all
contractors that is there in Database, and which can be accessed by C1 India

24. 10 th December, 2005
To cover things up, IT Secretary gives a clean chit to Service provider – C1 India
by means of issuing unsigned certificate making a claim that there is nothing wrong with the system.
_________________________________

____Please read this article. The E-governance Muddle http://www.dqindia.com/content/search/showarticle.asp?artid=74532 What was expected to bring transparency in government transactions has got mired in a slew of allegations. Dataquest probes the charges made by an IAS officer against his own clan… Posted in DIT - MIT - | Leave a Comment » Highlights – COMMUNICATIONS, IT AND POSTS Posted by egovindia on June 21, 2006 COMMUNICATIONS, IT AND POSTS  http://www.dmaran.nic.in/highlights.htm TELECOM 46 million telephone connections by end of April 2006. This is almost double of 75 million connections in April 2004. 42 million connections added last year compared to 24 million in 2004-05. In past four months about 22 million telephone subscribers have been added. This rate of growth is expected to increase further. BSNL/MTNL announced a new tariff plan of Rs.1 per minute STD tariff for any destination (down from the level of Rs. 4.80 in May 2004). Tariff emulated by most of the private service providers also. With the reduction in ADC, rate of growth of telecom subscribers would increase further. Expected that of the targeted additions of about 100 million phones by December 2007 (total 250 million phones by Dec. 07), a significant share would come from BSNL/MTNL. BSNL has floated the tender for procurement of 63.5 million additional mobile lines. Project for release of 45 MHz spectrum from Defence for growth of mobile services has been launched. This additional spectrum is likely to be made available in the beginning of the year 2007. Project for sharing of infrastructure by mobile operators has been launched in Delhi and Mumbai. This would facilitate sharing of passive and active infrastructure and network operating expenses. Rural Telephony Providing of Village Public Telephone (VPTs) in remaining unconnected 66,822 villages component of Bharat Nirman . BSNL awarded the work for providing VPTs in all the remaining 66,822 uncovered villages by November 2007 with support from Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. 25,000 VPTs provided as on 30th April 2006. Efforts being made to complete it in 2006 itself. 46,253 Rural Community Phones (RCPs) to be provided in villages with population exceeding 2000 and without a Public phone facility other than a VPT. As on 30th April 2006, 24,000 RCPs have been provided. Agreements signed for providing Rural household Lines (RDELs) in 1,685 commercially unviable Short Distance Charging Areas( SDCAs). More than 4,00,000 RDELs have been provided so far. Scheme for sharing of infrastructure for enhancing rural mobile penetration is in advance stage of finalization. To facilitate speedy rural penetration entry handsets with a price-tag of Rs. 1700 have been launched. Efforts are on to make it available at about Rs 1000. Planning made to provide mobile coverage in villages with population more than 5000 by September 2006 & villages with population more than 2000 by March 2007. Broadband Broadband Policy announced in October 2004 with a vision of covering 20 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2010. Nation-wide Broadband Services launched by BSNL & MTNL wef. 14.1.2005 to cover 200 towns in one year. The spread now covers 300 towns with about one and half million connections given out of which share of BSNL/MTNL is 70%. To encourage expansion of broadband connectivity at a faster pace, both outdoor and indoor usage of low power Wi-fi and WiMax systems in 2.4 GHz– 2.4835 GHz band has been delicensed. The use of low power indoor systems in 5.15 – 5.35 GHz & 5.725 – 5.875 GHz has also been delicensed. Licensing liberalisation FDI Ceiling increased from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in the telecom services. Licence fee for NLD, ILD, IP-II, VSAT commercial and ISP with internet telephony (restricted) licences was reduced to 6% of AGR w.e.f. 1-1-2006. Entry fee for NLD reduced to Rs. 2.5 Crore from Rs. 100 Crore. Entry fee for ILD reduced to Rs. 2.5 Crore from Rs. 25 Crore. Lease line charges reduced to make the bandwidth available at competitive prices to facilitate growth in IT enabled services. In respect of states having two telecom circles e.g. Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, U.P and West Bengal, Calls between Chennai and rest of Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, Kolkata and rest of West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar and UP East and UP West service areas treated as Intra service area calls. NLD service providers permitted to access the subscribers directly for provision of leased circuits/closed user groups and can provide last mile connectivity. The ILD service providers can also access the subscriber directly only for provision of leased circuits/closed user groups. Access service providers allowed to provide Internet telephony, internet services and broadband services. With a view to make international bandwidth available at competitive rate, BSNL is planning to lay Tuticorin–Sri Lanka submarine cable. It is likely to be made operational in first quarter of 2006-07. Project for submarine cable connectivity between India and Singapore, India and Gulf countries, initiated by MTNL and BSNL to provide cost effective international bandwidth. Manufacturing Zero-Customs duty on all import of component and raw materials required for manufacturing telecom equipment including Custom duty on all 217 ITA-1 items to boost manufacturing sector. Mobile phone components exempted from 4% CVD. Mobile telephone removed from the 'one- out- of- the six criteria' for income tax return purpose. Ericsson set up GSM Radio Base Station Manufacturing facility in Jaipur. Elcoteq has set up handset manufacturing facilities in Bangalore. Nokia set up its manufacturing plant in Chennai. LG Electronics set up plant of manufacturing GSM mobile phones near Pune. Ericsson recently launched their R&D Centre in Chennai. Flextronics setting up an SEZ in Chennai. Two more SEZ in telecom sector in advance stage of approval. Proposals implemented/under implementations of US$ 620 million in telecom sector. Companies like Flextronics, Motorola, Foxconn, Aspocomn etc. decided to set up their manufacturing bases with an investment of about US$ 650 million. AMD signed a “milestone agreement” with SemIndia to bring semiconductor manufacturing facilities to India. It envisages an investment of US$3 billion over four years. Microsoft Corp to invest US$1.7 billion in India over four years. Intel announced their investment plan of more than US$1 billion in five years. CISCO to invest US$1.1 billion including US$750 million for an R & D centre. Revival of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) started with the revival plan of Rs. 1025 crore. GSM equipment manufacturing started at ITI plants at Mankapur and Rae Bareli with technology partnership of Alcatel, France. Telecom & IT sector expected to attract US $ 10-11 billion in next 2-3 years. While Telecom manufacturing sector expected to attract about US $ 1.5-2 billion, Telecom services sector also expected to attract US $ 2-3 billion. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) drawn up covering 26 Mission Mode Projects and 8 support components to be implemented at the Central, State and Local Government Levels. Planning Commission allocated funds as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to all the States for taking up Capacity Building measures as a first step towards NeGP. Scheme for the establishment of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs)approved in 22 States/UTs at a total outlay of Rs.3,334 crore over a period of 5 years, extending data connectivity of 2 Mega bits per second up-to the block level in all States and Union Territories in the country Proposal formulated to establish 100,000 Common Services Centres (CSCs) in rural areas which would extend the reach of electronic services, both government and private to the village level. Draft Policy prepared for Investments for setting up semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano technology manufacture industries in India. India became a major destination for FDI investments in Information Communication Technology sector as world leaders in ICT like Intel, Cisco, SemIndia-AMD, Microsoft, Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Kyocera, Siemens, LG, Samsung, etc., announced large investment plans for India. Several manufacturers launched their low cost PC at a price below Rs. 10,000. Free Software Tools and Fonts in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu made available free to the public distribution. National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) set up state-of-the art hardware and software and re-launched the .IN Registry. Four Internet Exchange Nodes set up and made operational at Noida (Delhi), Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and as many as 40 ISPs have been connected with these nodes. Keeping in view the global trends in IPv6, DIT took initiative towards IPv6 transition and a National Roadmap for IPv6 implementation which includes an awareness building programme, research and development, test bed projects on IPv6 migration and deployment by Network providers. Expert Committee on Information Technology Act set up to review the IT Act which proposed appropriate amendments. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, the amendments to the IT Act have been finalised. 112 Community Information Centres (CICs) set up in Jammu and Kashmir. Another 23 CICs in J&K will be made operational by July 2006. CICs are also being established in the government schools in Andaman and Nicobar Islands (41 CICs) and Lakshadweep Islands (30 CICs) for imparting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based education. National facility for electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) evaluation of electronic equipments and systems, first of its kind in India and third in South East Asia, set-up at Chennai. Joint project approved for setting up Nanoelectronics Centres at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay with a total outlay of Rs.99.80 crore over a period of five years. POSTS DoP hosted the Draft Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill 2006 on its website and invited views and suggestions. Direct Post launched for distribution of advertising material by the Post Offices. Logistics Post Service introduced in 11 States. Speed Post Gold Service introduced between business districts of Delhi and Mumbai Finance Marts opened in 142 selective post offices in the country On-line domestic money transmission service called iMO was introduced to assure speed in delivery of money. Metro Mail operations streamlined and geared up in seven Metros. Accidental Death Insurance at a very low premium of Rs.15/- provided by Oriental Insurance Company (OIC) for a policy of Rs. one lakh for one year – for Savings Bank account holders. Children Policy introduced to provide insurance cover to the children of the policyholder. Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) constituted to recommend various steps required to eliminate the financial deficit. Posted in DIT - MIT - | Leave a Comment » Achievements in detail – COMMUNICATIONS, IT & POSTS Posted by egovindia on June 21, 2006 COMMUNICATIONS, IT & POSTS  http://www.dmaran.nic.in/ach_details.htm TELECOM The telecommunication sector continued to register significant success during the year and has emerged as one of the key sectors responsible for India’s resurgent India’s economic growth. The sector, which was growing in the range of 20 to 25 per cent up to the year 2002-2003 has moved to a higher growth path of an average rate of 40-45 per cent during the last two years. This rapid growth has been possible due to various proactive and positive decisions of the Government and contribution of both by the public and the private sector. On the eve of completion of two years, India has crossed 146 million mark in terms of number phones. Thus, the country is the fifth largest network in the world after China, USA, Japan and Germany. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has set for itself a target of providing 250 million telephone connections by the year 2007 (a teledensity of 22 %) as against a teledensity target of 15 by the year 2010 envisaged in NTP-1999. DoT is in the process of achieving the same. One India Keeping in view the Government’s commitment to provide low cost and affordable telephone services to the common man of India, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) launched “One India Plan”. “One India” scheme, the brainchild of the Minister of Communications & Information Technology was launched with a view to connecting India at an affordable tariff throughout the length and breadth of the country. In consonance with his vision, the new Plan will enable the customers of BSNL and MTNL to call from one end of the India to the other, either from Kashmir to Kanyakumari or from Dwarka to Dimapur at the cost of Re.1.00 per minute, anywhere, any time to any phone . This has marked the death of distance and STD. Network Expansion The potential to expand telecom network in India is immense, as our tele-density is only about 13.02% as against more than 100% in all the above-mentioned countries except China (55%). The demand has already saturated in the developed countries, and India is bound to surpass them within next 4-5 years. It is evident from the fact that the future growth would be in the mobile segment with a substantial contribution of both public and private sector. It is expected that of the targeted additions of about 100 million phones by December 2007 (total 250 million phones by Dec. 07), a significant share would come from BSNL/MTNL. BSNL has floated the tender for procurement of 63.5 million additional mobile lines. The Project for release of 45 MHz spectrum from Defence for growth of mobile services has been launched. This additional spectrum is likely to be made available in the beginning of the year 2007. The Project for sharing of infrastructure by mobile operators has been launched in Delhi and Mumbai. This would facilitate sharing of passive and active infrastructure and network operating expenses. Rural Telephony – Bharat Nirman As far as Rural Telephony is concerned, improving connectivity has been high on priority of DoT. Telecom connectivity has a crucial role to play in building the infrastructure for a modern India. To bridge the digital divide between rural and urban areas, the concept of Universal Service Obligation (USO) has been enunciated to provide access to basic telecommunication services to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices. Under the Bharat Nirman Programme 66,822 revenue villages in the country, which have not yet been provided with a Village Public Telephone (VPT), shall be covered by November, 2007. Villages with population less than 100 and those affected with insurgency are not covered under the scheme. 14,813 remotely located villages will be provided VPTs through Digital Satellite Phone Terminals (DSPTs). The technology utilized for the remaining 52,639 villages shall be predominantly WLL i.e. Wireless in Local Loop. Assistance for capital expenditure as well as operational expenditure for these VPTs will be provided. It will be the endeavour of the USO Fund to complete this component of the Bharat Nirman Programme as expeditiously as possible and in any case before November, 2007. An estimated sum of Rs. 451 crore would be incurred to provide subsidy support for these VPTs. The entire funding shall be met out of the USO Fund and no separate allocation from the Government would be required. The Cabinet has also approved introduction of a Bill in Parliament to amend the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. This has been done with a view to cover cellular services, in addition to basic telegraph services within the scope of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund for faster expansion of telecommunication services in rural areas. 25000 VPTs have been provided as on 30th April 2006 and efforts are being made to complete the target in 2006 itself. Other steps towards this direction include signing agreements for providing Rural household Lines (RDELs) in 1,685 commercially unviable Short Distance Charging Areas( SDCAs). 46,253 Rural Community Phones (RCPs) will be provided in villages with population exceeding 2000 and without a Public phone facility other than a VPT. As on 30th April 2006, 24,000 RCPs have been provided. More than 4,00,000 RDELs have been provided so far; Scheme for sharing of infrastructure for enhancing rural mobile penetration is in advance stage of finalization. To facilitate speedy rural penetration entry handsets with a price-tag of Rs. 1700 have been launched. Efforts are on to make it available at about Rs 1000. Villages with population more than 5000 are planned to be provided with mobile coverage by September 2006 & villages with population more than 2000 by March 2007. Broadband In the area of broadband connectivity, a well laid out new broadband policy was announced in October, 2004 with a vision of covering 20 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2010. Nation-wide Broadband Services were launched by BSNL & MTNL wef. 14.1.2005 to cover 200 towns in one year. The spread now covers 300 towns with about one and half million connections given out of which share of BSNL/MTNL is 70%. To encourage expansion of broadband connectivity at a faster pace, both outdoor and indoor usage of low power Wi-fi and WiMax systems in 2.4 GHz– 2.4835 GHz band has been delicensed. The use of low power indoor systems in 5.15 – 5.35 GHz & 5.725 – 5.875 GHz has also been delicensed. Licensing Liberalisation FDI Ceiling was increased from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in the telecom sector. Licence fee for NLD, ILD, IP-II, VSAT commercial and ISP with internet telephony (restricted) licences was reduced to 6% of AGR w.e.f. 1st January 2006. Entry fee for NLD was reduced to Rs. 2.5 Crore from Rs. 100 Crore. Entry fee for ILD was also reduced to Rs. 2.5 Crore from Rs. 25 Crore. Lease line charges were reduced to make the bandwidth available at competitive prices to facilitate growth in IT enabled services. In the case of states having two telecom circles e.g. Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, U.P and West Bengal, calls made between Chennai and rest of Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, Kolkata and rest of West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar and UP East and UP West service areas treated as Intra service area calls. NLD service providers are permitted to access the subscribers directly for provision of leased circuits/closed user groups and can provide last mile connectivity. The ILD service providers can also access the subscriber directly only for provision of leased circuits/closed user groups. Access service providers are allowed to provide Internet telephony, internet services and broadband services. Boost to investment and manufacturing activities Ericsson has set up GSM Radio Base Station Manufacturing facility in Jaipur. Elcoteq has set up handset manufacturing facilities in Bangalore. Nokia set up its manufacturing plant in Chennai. LG Electronics set up plant of manufacturing GSM mobile phones near Pune. Ericsson recently launched their R&D Centre in Chennai. Flextronics setting up an SEZ in Chennai. Two more SEZ in telecom sector in advance stage of approval. Proposals implemented/under implementations of US$ 620 million in telecom sector. Major companies like Flextronics, Motorola, Foxconn, Aspocomn etc., decided to set up their manufacturing bases with an investment of about US$ 650 million. Revival of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) started with the revival plan of Rs. 1025 crore. GSM equipment manufacturing started at ITI plants at Mankapur and Rae Bareli with technology partnership of Alcatel, France. No custom duty shall be levied on all import of component and raw materials required for manufacturing telecom equipment including Custom duty on all 217 ITA-1 items to boost manufacturing sector. Mobile phone components exempted from 4% CVD. AMD signed a “milestone agreement” with SemIndia to bring semiconductor manufacturing facilities to India. It envisages an investment of US$3 billion over four years. Microsoft Corp to invest US$1.7 billion in India over four years. Intel announced their investment plan of more than US$1 billion in five years. CISCO to invest US$1.1 billion including US$750 million for an R & D centre. Telecom & IT sector is expected to attract US $ 10-11 billion in next 2-3 years. While Telecom manufacturing sector is expected to attract about US $ 1.5-2 billion, Telecom services sector is also expected to attract US $ 2-3 billion. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY National Plan on e-Governance The National Common Minimum Programme adopted by the Government accords high priority to improving the quality of basic governance and in that context has proposed to promote e-Governance on a massive scale in areas of concern to the common man. Accordingly, a National e-Governance Plan (NEGP) has been drawn up covering 26 Mission Mode Projects and 8 support components to be implemented at the Central, State and Local Government Levels. The objective of this Plan is “Making all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, throughout his life through a One-stop-shop (integrated service delivery) ensuring efficiency, transparency and reliability and at affordable costs to meet the basic needs of the common man”. The National e-Governance Plan has been approved by the Government. State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) The Government has approved a scheme for the establishment of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) at a total outlay of Rs.3,334 crore over a period of 5 years. These SWANs will extend data connectivity of 2 Mega bits per second up-to the block level in all States and Union Territories in the country. The block level nodes in turn, will have a provision to extend connectivity further to the village level using contemporary wireless technology. An amount of Rs. 315.30 crore has been released under the scheme as first installment to 22 States/UTs. Common Service Centres (CSCs) The Department has formulated a proposal to establish 100,000 Common Services Centres (CSCs) in rural areas, which will serve not only as the front end for most government services, but also as a means to connect the citizens of rural India to the World Wide Web. CSCs would extend the reach of electronic services, both government and private to the village level. Various government departments have been advised to design and evolve their Mission Mode Projects laying adequate emphasis on Services and Service levels in respect of their interface with citizens and businesses. These advances in ICT technologies will enable us to take concrete steps towards turning our dream of ‘government at your doorstep’ into a reality. Capacity Building The nature and scale of e-Governance initiatives planned in the domain of the State Governments would entail major managerial and technological challenges. This necessitates Capacity Building both at Programme level and Project level in States. The Department in consultation with the Planning Commission has prepared the Capacity Building Guidelines and issued to all States and Union Territories (UTs). The State Governments have been advised to prepare the proposal for Capacity Building implementation. Orientation programme, training and workshop have been arranged for key States representatives and personnel. The Planning Commission has allocated funds as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to all the States for taking up Capacity Building measures as a first step towards NeGP. National Electronics/IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy The Government has set up a National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) to provide a continuing forum for policy dialogue to energize and sustain the growth of manufacturing industry including IT Hardware. The Department of Information Technology has been in discussion with the NMCC and has proposed a package of incentives needed for the growth of Electronics/IT Hardware sector, which has been submitted to the NMCC. A Task Force has been set up in the PMO for its implementation. The Government has prepared a Draft Policy for Investments for setting up semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano technology manufacture industries in India which has been submitted to the Department of Economic Affairs. As a result of the efforts taken by the Department, India has become a major destination for FDI investments in Information Communication Technology sector. World leaders in ICT like Intel, Cisco, SemIndia-AMD, Microsoft, Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Kyocera, Siemens, LG, Samsung, etc., have announced large investment plans for India in hardware manufacturing or chip design or R&D or to develop software products. PC Penetration One of the major initiatives of DIT was to increase PC penetration. The Department had discussions with various computer manufacturers to roll out sub Rs. 10,000 fully loaded computer. Several manufacturers have launched their low cost PC at a price below Rs. 10,000 during 2005. Indian Language Technology As a landmark in the series of release of Software Tools and Fonts in various Indian languages that are contemplated, the DIT made available free tools and fonts, developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) an autonomous scientific society under the Administrative Control of DIT, to the public distribution upon registration on the designated website. It has released in the public domain, various Tamil language fonts, e-mail client, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, spell checker and dictionary in April 2005. Similarly the Hindi and Telugu software tools and fonts were released in June 2005 and October 2005, respectively. Software tools and fonts in Punjabi and Urdu are ready for release. All Indian languages are expected to be covered in the next one year. To give a push to the development and deployment of the Indian language in information technology, a Committee headed by the Secretary, DIT has formulated a Road-map which is presently under implementation. IT for Productivity A Plan of Scheme for increasing usage of ICT tools for productivity enhancement has been approved by the Department. The Department has released an advertisement in leading national newspaper for request to register ICT products/tools, which can be used to enhance productivity in various sectors of economy. 83 proposals have been received from software developers/vendors. The details of these developers/products have been compiled and is being updated on the Department web-site. The methodology to introduce these products in the SMEs is being examined in consultation with the vendors. Internet Promotion In January 2005 DIT and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) set up state-of-the art hardware and software and relaunched the .IN Registry. The opening of the .IN Registry has significantly improved and broadened the availability of the domain names. The .in Internet domain name registration has crossed 1,77,000 during the month of April 2006. Four Internet Exchange Nodes have been set up and made operational at Noida (Delhi), Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and as many as 40 ISPs have been connected with these nodes. Setting up Root Servers The Department of Information Technology and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) has installed three mirror Internet root servers at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The root servers form a critical part of the global Internet infrastructure. Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai are having K, I and F root servers, respectively. The installation of these root servers in the country will help in reducing the expensive international bandwidth load, increase the internet resilience by bringing down our dependency on root servers abroad and improve host name resolution from hundreds of millisecond to under-ten millisecond. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Keeping in view the global trends in IPv6, the Department of Information Technology took the initiative towards IPv6 transition and a National Roadmap for IPv6 implementation. It includes an awareness building programme, research and development, test bed projects on IPv6 migration and deployment by Network providers. In India, IPv6 has been deployed in the ERNET and Sify networks. Review of Information Technology Act An Expert Committee on Information Technology Act was set up to review the IT Act and propose appropriate amendments in the light of national and international developments post IT Act 2000. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, the amendments to the IT Act have been finalized. Ministry of Law and Justice has already drafted the Bill. The amendments will be put up to the Parliament very shortly. Community Information Centres To reduce the digital divide by providing internet access and IT enabled services to the community at large and to facilitate citizen interface with the Government, the Department has set-up 112 Community Information Centres (CICs) in Jammu and Kashmir. Another 23 CICs in J&K will be made operational by July 2006. CICs are also being established in the government schools in Andaman and Nicobar Islands (41 CICs) and Lakshadweep Islands (30 CICs) for imparting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based education. e-Procurement e-procurement solution is being implemented in the National Informatics Centre (NIC) with a plan to extend it to other Government Departments/Organizations in stages. The solution caters to business processes beginning with end-user request, moving on to indenting and then tendering/purchasing activities and finally culminating in Award of Contract / Purchase Order. It includes approval of workflow at different stages, supplier enablement to facilitate the business users, integration with multiple payment gateways, digital signing & encryption and provisions for secure audit. Research and Development A national facility for electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) evaluation of electronic equipments and systems, first of its kind in India and third in South East Asia, was set-up at Chennai. The facilities would help in promoting the acceptance of Indian electronic products in the International market. The Government has approved a joint project for setting up Nanoelectronics Centres at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay with a total outlay of Rs.99.80 crore over a period of five years. POSTS To attune itself to the working in a competitive and liberal environment, the Department of Posts (DoP) has proposed a Draft Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2006 to liberalize the mail industry, encourage competition, bringing qualitative improvements in the postal service through out the country with prime focus on safeguarding the interests of consumers of mail services irrespective of the fact that the services are provided by DoP or any private courier company. The postal services in the country are governed by more than a century old statute viz. Indian Post Office Act, 1898. Recent developments in the field of Communications and Information Technology have transformed the perceptions and expectations of the consumers and have thrown challenges and opportunities before the postal operators across the world including India. The DoP has hosted the Draft Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill 2006 on its website and invited views and suggestions from the General Public. With a view to introduce new products and services to increase the business volumes and revenue, the Department of Posts has launched Direct Post for distribution of advertising material by the Post Offices. Direct Post is the un-addressed component of Direct Mail, and would comprise of un-addressed postal articles like letters, cards, brochures, questionnaires, pamphlets, samples, promotional items like CDs/floppies and Cassettes etc., coupons, posters, mailers or any other form of printed communication that is not prohibited by the Indian Post Office Act 1898 or Indian Post Office Rules 1933. The Direct post articles can be sent only within India. Logistics Post Service was introduced in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Uttaranchal. This service will be extended to other parts of the country also. Speed Post Gold Service introduced between business districts of Delhi and Mumbai in February 2006 assures the next day forenoon delivery, automatic refund in the case of delay, electronic proof of delivery on e-mail/SMS and specialized arrangements for collection, transmission and delivery. Finance Marts opened in selective post offices in the country which, in addition to providing small savings facility to the Public, will advise investors and accept their investments for further investing in the products of their choice. With the setting up of Finance Marts in these select Post Offices, all the activities of investment schemes and transactions can be done under roof. Presently, there are 142 Postal Finance Marts in the country. On-line domestic money transmission service called iMO was introduced to assure speed in delivery of money. Metro Mail operations streamlined and geared up at seven Metros namely Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Karnataka and Ahmedabad Accidental Death Insurance at a very low premium of Rs.15/- is provided by Oriental Insurance Company (OIC) for a policy of Rs. one lakh for one year – for Savings Bank account holders on request basis. This is an add-on product to the products already provided by OIC for sale from post office and this is a step in the direction of providing value addition to Post Office Savings Bank customers. A new Postal Life Insurance Policy called the Children Policy was introduced in January 2006 to provide insurance cover to the children of the policyholder. The Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS) – 2004 mobilized Rs. 8775 cores in 2004-05. India Post has shown its versatility by giving value additions to the Senior Citizens through payment of interest by cash, credit into their POSB accounts and by Money Order. The Cabinet Secretariat constituted an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) in May, 2005 to study the existing activities of the Department of Posts and to recommend various steps required to eliminate the financial deficit. The report of the IMG will be available by the end of May 2006. Posted in DIT - MIT - | Leave a Comment » Mobile Phone Revolution Transforms Economic Landscape of India: Dayanidhi Maran Posted by egovindia on June 21, 2006 Mobile Phone Revolution Transforms Economic Landscape of India: Dayanidhi Maran   http://www.dmaran.nic.in/prdisplay.php?id=245 13th June, 2006 – Press Information Bureau New Delhi,  Jyaistha  23, 1928 June 13, 2006 Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology  has said that ever since the first GSM network rolled out in India it has  completely transformed the telecommunication infrastructure of the country, making the country’s every seventh person to possess a phone connection.   Shri Maran said this while he was addressing the Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA) Board , which met for the first time, here today. The transformation was in such a manner that the telephone connection ratio has come down to 1:7 from 1:125.    Out of this, more than two thirds are  using a mobile phone.   In fact, the telecom revolution in the past decade can be termed as mobile revolution, he added.   The mobile revolution has completely transformed the economic landscape of the  country.   This revolution, in turn, has led to the improved economic growth and has played a key role in the success of the Indian reforms/liberalisation process,  the Minister said.  Speaking further Shri Maran said that the above fact could be ratified if one stepped out in streets to witness the success of mobile telephony in India.    “Students, housewives, carpenters, plumbers, vegetable vendors – you would be hard put to find a category in urban India that has not adopted the mobile phone with a vengeance”, he said.   The Minister further said that this success has been possible  because of the ability to deliver the services to the  citizens at a price that they could afford.  Mobile tariffs in India are  the lowest in the world.   This is due to the fact that in India the model is based on volumes and not margins, he added.  Speaking on the rural connectivity Shri Maran said that Rural India, which accounts for over 70% of our population is still to experience the telecom revolution.   Rural tele density in the country is still at around 1.9%. India cannot truly move forward unless we carry with us 70% of our citizens that reside in rural areas.   Thus, improved rural connectivity is one of the highest priority areas before the Government, he said. RM/NCJ/AMA- 130606 GSMA Meet Posted in DIT - MIT - | Leave a Comment » « Previous Entries   Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Andreas09 by Andreas Viklund.